Though text messaging is a more popular way of reaching consumers on their mobile phones, and wireless banner advertising is all but insignificant at this point, the Mobile Marketing Association (MMA) ad standards committee, which includes representatives of Enpocket, Nextel, The Weather Channel Interactive and Yahoo, has released its first mobile web banner ad guidelines, reports ClickZ.

The MMA recommendations (PDF) refer to graphical banners (and 80 x 15 pixel black and white bitmap graphic), text "banners" (a two-line text ad, 12-16 characters per line) and a combination unit (16-color image/text banner), among others.

The guidelines also discuss best practices regarding landing pages and direct response features.

"It's about ensuring the right guidelines are in place before it gets out of control," said Laura Marriott, executive director of the MMA.

"The agencies are ready to go," said Heidi Lehmann, VP of strategic alliances at Third Screen Media and chair of the standards committee. "The advertisers are ready to go. The carriers have been the block in the road. This year, they're coming around and saying, 'Hey, the money would be nice.'"